Email @"Dillon A. Wright" (dillon[at]7sage.com) and he'll fix you up. Sometimes wires just don't connect for some reason. This happened to me with a trumpet once, lol.
I love the idea of adversity as a topic but I'm not sure about the unemployment aspect. I think---like many topics---it will come down to how you write about it and connect it to the overall theme of adversity.
Can you speak with the instructor(s) by phone after you email them? Maybe send your resume and/or connect on LinkedIn. A cool thing about this is you were in school recently. That'll help.